Sunday, April 25, 2010

B-cycle bike-share program makes Denver a roll model

On Earth Day, Denver became the first city in the nation to develop a large scale bike-sharing program. The hope is that people will use these bikes as a link between public transportation and their final destinations within the city, leaving cars at home. Thirty eight kiosks are set up at high traffic sites and public transportation stops, where people signed up for the program pay based on how long they use the bikes for. Parry Burnap, executive director of the program says that, "stats show that 49 percent of Americans' trips are about 3 miles". Especially true in an urban environment, the bike-share program would offer an easy, environmentally friendly, and healthy alternative to driving.

While this program sounds like a great idea, there are some issues that need to be addressed. 1) Is Denver biker friendly? Boulder is a great place to move around on bike, but downtown Denver might not have the infrastructure for bike paths and bike lanes. 2) Is the program affordable for infrequent users? The current 24-hour membership is $5, while a yearly membership is $65. 3) If it is too expensive, how do membership fees decrease? Donations, subsidies, taxes?

Much question remains whether the program will succeed, but if it does, there is great potential for expansion within Denver, and Denver could serve as a model for new large scale bike-sharing programs around the country.

http://www.denverpost.com/style/ci_14839372
http://denver.bcycle.com/About/TheDenverBikeSharingStory.aspx

11 comments:

  1. It does seem that this program is still in the developing stages, and adding on to their obstacles such as creating a biker friendly city is the community's willingness to use and pay for this transportation. In my opinion, it's possible that they'd find biking to their destinations an inconvenience for the following reasons: the area is dangerous, a change of attire may be deemed necessary, time is a factor, and some trips require a lot of carrying capacity. However, in today's society there's also a problem of self motivation to exercise especially in a busy city.

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  2. I heard about something similar to this not long ago but with cars. I'm not quite sure how it works though in terms of theft prevention. This bike program could be a great thing in terms of emission reduction, and increased public health, there are however some fairly large problems that could occur due to this. Bikers are notorious for not being sure if they're a pedestrian or if they're a car, which leads to accidents for both people and cars alike. An increase in bike traffic could increase the extent to which they endanger pedestrians and cars alike. I feel as though we need more strict bike laws which are more stringently enforced in order to keep everybody safe and healthy.

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  3. I think that this is a great concept. Of course it will not work for every commuter, but is an excellent opportunity for the eco-conscious commuter that this program is intended for. For many people who already choose to use public transportation, this will be very convenient. I do not think that there is any danger involved in increasing the number of bikes on the road. As long as riders, drivers, and pedestrians can stay aware when traveling and willing to share the roads, there should be no problem.

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  4. This seems like a great program in theory, but issues such as attire, frequent weather change, city safety, etc seem like big issue. I do think however that if any city has the ability to take full advantage of this program its Denver, and the program sounds like it has a lot of potential.

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  5. As a cyclist I am cautiously excited about this news. I do think that an important aspect for the success of the program and the safety of those involved there needs to be education of both motor vehicle drivers and bikers of the state laws. I have experienced that downtown Denver isn't very bike friendly and drivers look for pedestrians but not bikes.

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  6. Having attended school in Denver last year, I can tell you that there are good bike paths running along the Platte, but on the whole it is much less bike friendly than Boulder. Personally, I know of one avid bicyclist that lost his life on the streets of Denver this year, despite his knowledge of laws and precautions.

    Also, $5 seems to be a little bit ridiculous for a daily pass. A light rail ticket is $2.70 through any zone. I think that the price of the bike would have to be comparable to bus and light rail fares for this to be utilized.

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  7. I know that San Francisco has a similar program that is very successful. But, San Francisco has invested heavily in ensuring that their downtown area is biker friendly. I do not think that Denver is currently biker friendly enough to allow for such a program to be successful at this point. But, if Denver can raise the revenue to build biking lanes throughout the downtown area, this program would definitely be a very beneficial way for commuters to cut down on their carbon footprint.

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  8. I am very fond of this type of program, however its application to US cities hits a couple major road bumps. First of the majority of Americans are lazy and would rather just use cars. As well, even if they want to a lot of early to late middle-aged citizens would need to get back in shape to ride longer distances possibly needed. Foremost American cities are designed around car transportation, not biking or walking. This presents large problems as there are large regions in which the light rail is incredibly hard to get too, much less biking.

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  9. I used to live in Madison Wisconsin and there was some sort of bike-share program there in which there were yellow bikes lying around town that you could simply take and use until someone else too it. However, what happened was people just trashed the bikes or took them apart for parts. Im not sure how this Denver bike share program would work, but be weary that it could suffer the same sort of fate.

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  10. Having lived in downtown Denver for two and a half years, I can address your first issue by saying that Denver is okay for bikes but not great. There are a couple bike lanes into downtown but not many. The only real safe path is along Cherry Creek but doesn't help those who probably need them most from Capitol Hill, Uptown and City Park West.

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  11. I sincerely hope this program is successful, but I agree with Matt: without development of bike path infrastructure and better marking of existing paths, bikeshare programs will continue to flounder.

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